It is common in the hydrocarbon recovery industry to have a need to plug an annular space defined by a tubular and a downhole wellbore structure, such as, a liner, casing or open hole, for example, within which the tubular is positioned. One sealing method includes positioning a swellable member perimetrically about the tubular prior to positioning the tubular within the downhole structure. The swellable member swells in response to exposure to downhole fluids such as oil or water for example. The swelling of the swellable member causes the swellable member to fill the annular space and to sealingly engage with walls of both the tubular and the downhole structure.
Establishing and maintaining a well secured communication from one side of the swellable seal to the other can be useful in well operations. Unsecured communication lines can have a far greater operational cost, which may result in having to exit from the borehole in order to make further securing repairs. Excessive vibration caused by one tool traveling down the borehole may adversely affect the performance of other tools obtaining valuable downhole data. That vibration creation along with unsecure communication lines may only amplify false results. Such amplification from those unsecure lines would be in comparison to a tuning fork when strike. In most gamma ray equipped downhole tools, the smooth transition of multiple or single photo multiplier tubes are important in order to provide the necessary pulse of light via the tubes. Any sharp bends or vibration may only destroy this very important light communication. Another example is on a telemetry downhole tool, mud pulses are registered by these types of tools via an electrical sensor. Any additional impacts from unsecured communication lines will only amplify noises or even provide false readings that are important to this data gathering. Systems and methods, therefore, that permit sealing and maintaining a solid lock down in an annular space while maintaining a communication passageway across the seal are desirable in the art.